I noticed a large number of threads in Cafe SETI are showing the Author as:
(banished: ID 421968)

I understand that "Banished" means someone has been banned for a time for violating the rules, but I was wondering what the "(banished: ID 421968)" means. Is the author of that thread banished? And to whom does ID 421968 refer? I looked at a few of the threads that have this tag instead of the author, but the actual authors of the threads are different, and the threads seem benign.

I read a lot of threads, but I don't post often, so I am not really familiar with this. Is there somewhere I can find the explanation of this banish format, or can someone fill me in?

I would appreciate your help...oh, by the way, I have never been "banished" anywhere, nor do I -ever- intend to be! :)

One rule around here is that we are not allowed to discuss Moderator actions publicly. If a poster has broken the rules in some way, then they can be banished from posting for certain amounts of time, depending upon the severity of the misdemeanor.

I apologize for any misunderstanding, Chris. I wasn't trying to discuss any particular moderator action. I was just trying to understand the meaning of this tag in the author of many of the threads in Cafe SETI.

If that can be clarified for me without violating any rules, I would appreciate it. If not, then I will ask no more.

When a user is banned, their account handle on the forums changes to (banished: ID xxxxx) where xxxxx = their SETI@Home account number. During the course of the ban all of the user's posts are hidden, so any threads they have started appears to have a different thread author because the original thread author's post was hidden.

The reason for this is because in the past, when some people have a meltdown, they had a tendency to litter the forums with various flames or other unacceptable posts. Also, there has been issues with spammers posting over in the Help forums where the minimum required RAC to post is zero, and some script kiddies have figured out ways to have a bot post dozens of spam messages advertising their wares.

In either case, by hiding all posts this allows the moderators a chance to hide any content that is not acceptable for our forums. Any posts that are not in violation will re-appear once the banned user is allowed back.

And don't worry about discussing moderator actions. The only rule is to not discuss specific moderator actions in public. We have an email list setup so that anyone with a specific complaint can email the entire team of Mods to be reviewed. The Mods will discuss the merits of the complaint and decide upon an appropriate action, if any.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to address this. There may have been other people that were wondering the same thing you were but were afraid to ask.

Also note the RED X below each post on every thread. That is there so that a reader can notify the Moderators that there may be a potential problem with a post. This could be anything from a double post to flaming or spam messages.

The red X is your fastest route to notifying the Mods of forum problemsIn a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

When a user is banned, their account handle on the forums changes to (banished: ID xxxxx) where xxxxx = their SETI@Home account number. During the course of the ban all of the user's posts are hidden, so any threads they have started appears to have a different thread author because the original thread author's post was hidden.

The reason for this is because in the past, when some people have a meltdown, they had a tendency to litter the forums with various flames or other unacceptable posts. Also, there has been issues with spammers posting over in the Help forums where the minimum required RAC to post is zero, and some script kiddies have figured out ways to have a bot post dozens of spam messages advertising their wares.

In either case, by hiding all posts this allows the moderators a chance to hide any content that is not acceptable for our forums. Any posts that are not in violation will re-appear once the banned user is allowed back.

And don't worry about discussing moderator actions. The only rule is to not discuss specific moderator actions in public. We have an email list setup so that anyone with a specific complaint can email the entire team of Mods to be reviewed. The Mods will discuss the merits of the complaint and decide upon an appropriate action, if any.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to address this. There may have been other people that were wondering the same thing you were but were afraid to ask.

-Fred
SETI Forums Admin

We have also had people that have been banished change their signatures or user names to be really offensive or otherwise against the rules. Thus the name change.BOINC WIKI